Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov (Rtd) – Director of Russia’s Institute of Strategic Research

Lieutenant General Reshetnikov of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research gives a wide-ranging interview on threats Russia faces from the West, to militant Islamic groups, to the conflict in Ukraine

The last year has been the year when Russia’s spy chiefs came out of the shadows.

A few weeks ago Colonel General Igor Sergun, the Head of the Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, gave a brief interview in which he publicly linked the U.S. to jihadi terrorism.

Now it is the turn of Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov, Director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Research (RISR), the Russian government’s chief centre for foreign policy analysis.

That Russia possesses a centre that undertakes foreign policy analysis for the Russian government and that this is connected to the country’s chief foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, will come as a surprise to no one.

Both the U.S. and Britain have such centres. In the U.S. it is the RAND Corporation. In Britain it is the Royal Institute of International Affairs (“Chatham House”).

We’re already spending your money on improving the content, so look for some big improvements in the coming weeks and months.

If you haven’t gotten around to it, please join the 700 other people who have donated, and make your voice heard! Help us to produce better journalism about Russia and produce better media criticism. It is so badly needed.

The campaign ends shortly after midnight (New York time) on Saturday of this coming week (the 18th).

Even if it’s only a couple of dollars – what matters even more is that more people get behind this.